Chapter 13
The ko circle we used to get everyone back to Earth was massive, but then, our little group, as well as at least fifty Raikengana and all their stuff had to fit in there.
The Raikengana were not all going to come with us and help close the veils.
Some were reinforcements for the base camp Hove would head, and while they could have traveled through a Lagasar near Esaka, going by ko circle cut the travel time and made sure there were no accidents on the way.
I didn’t blame them for choosing the comfortable way of getting to Earth.
Lissir had found Sonyo during the final prep and kept the excitable little bagu company. Kinnek had double-checked Vergis’s ko circle design and pronounced it in order. The two of them were talking while Inkiri helped get everything into the ko circle.
Gesango stuck close to Aragis. Vergis, on the other hand seemed to want to keep his distance from Aragis.
I hadn’t even seen them speak yet. I just stood around in the center of the design, waiting for someone to tell me to dispense and feeling slightly uncomfortable about being superfluous until then.
When Vergis, Kinnek, and I finally did join hands to pool all our magic, it was a relief.
We hopped the veils easily enough, and the land greeted me with its casual regard once we were back. What wasn’t all that casual was Nokim, who wove his way through the Raikengana to get to me.
“Rory!” He hugged me close, his clicks echoing in my ear. “Vergis and Charles told us everything! We’re so happy.”
And happy was right, going by how Hove and Fellisse greeted each other. In an almost rough move, Hove took Fellisse by the horn and pulled his head aside in order to get access to his throat and lick over his skin there. I hoped Lissir was covering Sonyo’s eyes.
But Lissir approached on my left. “Nokim, take your hands off Inkiri’s mate and coddle this little one instead.” He had a hand on Sonyo’s shoulder.
“Oh?” Nokim released me from the long hug and looked at Sonyo.
Inkiri came up behind me and wrapped me in his arms instead. “Sonyo made his case for becoming hanmen to our sentenmen, and Rory left it to me to decide, given he’s still new to Raiken culture.”
Lissir raised his chin. “Sensible. More sensible is teaching Rory about how things work in the Raiken.”
Nokim tilted his head at little Sonyo, who I now noticed was wearing, like, a copper wrap-around jacket over his normal clothing.
Had someone told the kid to dress warmly for the journey?
One of us was probably going to have to do that now.
I’d have to check who was responsible for that sort of thing.
Nokim said something to Sonyo, who was still wide-eyed as he took in everything around him—a lot like I was feeling myself. I’d not expected to arrive where we had.
“This is the base camp?” I reached for Inkiri’s hand where it rested on my belly.
“Yes, sadir. Is anything wrong with it?”
“No, it’s just—this is Trinity College. Or it was. You brought us to Dublin.”
“Nice central spot to liaise with the humans,” I heard the other human in our group say, and I looked over my shoulder to find Charles making his way through the Raikengana.
All of them were busy unpacking everything we had brought along.
“You guys made it safer for the reinforcements to get here. There isn’t a fuse point that’s easy to reach this close on the Earth side. ”
I looked around at all the busyness. “Makes sense they’d bring that much stuff, then.”
“You always supply your troops when you can,” Charles said.
I watched him approach Kinnek. It was entirely possible that I was reading the situation as overly romantic, but to me, everything else in the world stopped mattering for Charles. He had only eyes for Kinnek as he hugged him close, gently cradling the back of his head as he kissed him.
That was love, a kind of love I now recognized. That surprised me, given that it was still all new, but it also made me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside, and I wiped at my eyes before I accidentally started crying for them and alarmed all the bagua present at the same time.
Luckily, Inkiri didn’t notice, just led me away from the ko circle. Lissir, Vergis, Nokim, and Sonyo followed.
We headed along a concrete path and stopped close to a large green lawn.
There were benches and big black trash cans there, everything almost untouched, and if it hadn’t been for the weeds that had now overtaken the lawn and the squirrels that didn’t mind us so close to their trees, I’d have expected students to come walking along these paths, just like they had when I’d last been here, days before the apocalypse.
Seeing the place now, abandoned but also unchanged in a lot of ways, made me feel sad in a way that was hard to describe. We’d lost so much, and yet so many things remained; people just gone, but leaving behind all these echoes of themselves.
I took a deep breath. At this point, crying was a real and imminent possibility.
Sonyo came up to me. “Rory.” The kid was once more giving me his biggest periwinkle eyes. “For you.” He pulled out a small package from inside his jacket and held it out to me with both hands, smiling brightly.
“Huh?”
“Princess, do you not remember what I told you about taking a fucking gift when it is handed to you? You think not eating massa buns is going to make the kid cry? Try ignoring a present,” Vergis said in his usual diplomatic way.
“Right. Erm. Lesh.” I took the package and unwrapped it while Sonyo watched, his big blue eyes only getting bigger.
The bow had been artfully made, and it was folded much more neatly than I would have managed at Sonyo’s age, so I took my time.
When I finally had it open though, I gasped.
“Oh! Look, it’s a scarf!” I carefully pulled it free and showed Inkiri.
The scarf was reddish copper with stylized green birds along the edges. It was beautiful.
“I can see that, sadir. Sonyo has paid attention and knows how to impress you, it seems.” He added something to Sonyo that made the kid totally light up. He rocked back and forth on his paw feet.
I eyed the pretty scarf and let the soft fabric run between my fingers, then held it out to Inkiri. “Will you put it on me?”
He smiled like he’d won a prize. “I’d love to, sadir.”
I let him pull off my old scarf, which he folded carefully before putting it in his own pocket.
He then draped the new one around my neck.
He clicked and fussed with it, adjusting it here and there.
Then again, he was probably just taking the opportunity to touch me.
In the moment, I felt like the most cherished of cherished trophy mates.
“It looks very good on you,” Inkiri said while Lissir nodded and Vergis rolled his eyes.
Sonyo said something in high-speed Lugarra.
“He says the colors look very good with your own weird colors, and I agree,” Nokim translated.
“Hey, auburn isn’t that rare. But lesh all the same. That reminds me though. Nokim? I may have lost that brooch you made when we were out there and I used my magic to make all that mud. I’m so sorry, but we were running, and—”
Inkiri put a hand on my shoulder. “It is really my fault, if anyone’s. Do you think you can make him another, Noki?”
Sonyo watched us all with big eyes, probably feeling a lot like I did when I didn’t understand the people around me speaking Lugarra.
Nokim nodded eagerly. “I would very much like that. The first one was good, but I can make a better one now, I think.”
Vergis crossed his arms and managed the not unimpressive feat of glaring at all of us. “We’re honestly discussing jewelry when we should be filling the princess in on what he needs to do to close the veil to the monster world? I mean, if you think the brooch is a priority though…”
Lissir clicked. “I’m sure Nokim will be glad to make you some nice jewelry as well, Vergis, won’t you, Nokim?”
It was Nokim’s turn to rock on his feet. “Very much! I’ll make it something unique.”
Vergis couldn’t look Nokim in the eye for too long and glanced away to the side. Was that a good sign? I wished I had more experience with how dating worked.
“Not my point. I don’t need jewelry.”
Lissir sighed. “No one needs jewelry, Vergis. It’s just that everyone likes having it.”
Inkiri grunted in agreement and wordlessly adjusted my scarf again. Not that it needed adjusting. But it was nice of him to pretend.
I smiled up at him. “Can confirm that.”
Vergis pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fine. No one wants to talk about what we came here to do, so I will.” He poked me in the chest with his index finger.
“You’re going to be the fuel. My understanding is that the plan stays pretty much the same.
We approach the Stone from the south. Daddy and I go first and make sure the coast is clear.
” He poked me again. “You go with Kinnek, and you keep up behind us. The rest of the protectors bring up the rear. Once we get to the Stone, we’ll all be covering you, Princess.
You and Dad get the job done at the Stone, and maybe he can make sure you don’t pee yourself while you do your…
” He took a deep breath, then said, in barely more than a whisper, “Dispensomancy.”
I blinked. “Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Say, is this the first time you actually want someone not to pee themself?”
“Keep talking, and I might change my mind about that.”
Lissir groaned. “It’s very good that the child cannot understand English all that well yet and doesn’t have to listen to you two. I don’t have that luxury. None of the rest of us have that luxury.”
I pointed at Vergis. “He started it. He always starts it.”
“I just point out that a lot of the situations I find myself in—situations that you find yourself in and then choose to drag me into with you—are often your doing entirely. I mean, have you forgotten that creepy orange spider thing? Or how you face-planted after I saved you from it?”
I blanched. That orange spider… I wanted to forget a creature like that existed at all, that evolution had come up with that thing anywhere in the universe. “We don’t need to talk about the…the monster. I have decided that I’m now an arachnophobe, and I don’t want to talk about it.”
Inkiri clicked and rubbed my back. “That means he doesn’t like spiders, or talking about spiders.
When there is a spider, best to not tell him about it and take the spider outside,” Weirdo Husband explained to Nokim and Lissir, who both nodded.
Nokim mouthed the word silently too. Inkiri now knew the definition on account of the fact that I’d had to explain it to him when there’d been a spider in our bedroom back in Canada.
He’d learned quickly and had immediately taken care of it like the highly trained protector he was.
Vergis looked deeply unimpressed. “All I’m saying is, the plan hasn’t really changed. Princess, when we make our approach, you use your magic to keep an eye on the humans. Hopefully the darkness will help with keeping us hidden. We do the thing, we leave. No more monsters.”
Inkiri nodded. “We might not get seen at all.”
I was suddenly very aware of his touch, his strong presence right next to me. If I could help us do this totally under the radar, I would.
Lissir’s brows drew together. “Is there any magic we might trigger?”
Vergis’s hand went to his knife. “Maybe. We’ll have to figure that out when we get there. Princess, at the Koa Esher mansion, you said you could use fog to hide us.”
I nodded, but my stomach cramped. Fog at the Hill of Tara reminded me of that night from long ago that the land had shown me. The two girls had been hunted down, despite the fog.
“I already used it, actually. To hide the beasts getting close from the other direction. I figured since that was where we weren’t, it would make a good distraction.”
Inkiri clicked. “That was smart, sweet thing.”
“Agreed,” Lissir said.
Vergis nodded. “Well, this time around, you can actually use it to hide us.”
“It will be a lot like crossing the border into Kankarraz, won’t it?” Lissir smiled at Inkiri, then at Nokim. “Like long ago, before the Lagasar.”
Inkiri nodded. “It might be, but hopefully there will be less arrows. I don’t like when there are arrows.”
Vergis laughed bitterly. “If they shoot at us, Inkiri, they’ll use bullets. Maybe you should wish for arrows instead.”
I shuddered, but Inkiri held me.
Please protect them all, I said to the land. Not just my guys, but everyone who helps us.
The land considered. I got the sense of it pacing, looking at paper, examining evidence.
If they fight with you, I will do what I can, it finally said. They saved the slaves, and all the slaves have power. Magic. They protected. Few do it readily.
I nodded, and an understanding that had nothing to do with the knowing hit me. The land had suffered for a long time, just not in the way people understood suffering. It had been alone though.
It had waited for someone new to be anointed, and for the longest time, no one had been. Then Gran had left entirely. It had probably hoped and wished that the girl with the green eyes hadn’t been the last anointed it would ever get to talk to, but that had probably been its fear.
The land must’ve felt powerless all this time, and it had been powerless back then to protect the girl.
I could understand that it didn’t trust easily, especially not when it came to a large group of people from elsewhere, like the protectors we’d brought with us. Maybe it was even overprotective of me.
They’ll protect again, I told the land as I leaned against Inkiri, running a hand over my new scarf. They trained him to protect me, and they’ll do it again if they have to.
Sonyo’s excited ooh! Made me look at the little bagu, who was pointing at a crow. The large black bird had landed on one of the trash cans and was cawing at us as if we were intruding. Or as if we were due to pay for our presence on its turf in food.
Sonyo turned to Nokim, and together they carefully approached the crow, which kept cawing. Sonyo gasped when the bird took flight at last, clearly amazed.
If nothing else, I got the feeling Sonyo would fit right in with us.